The announcement today by Dr. Gary North of the Ron Paul Curriculum — roll-out scheduled for Fall 2013 — is big news. REALLY big news. It should give statists, socialists, academic leftists and other social and cultural miscreants reason to fear and tremble.

We’re not talking about a mere educational innovation here. This is a REVOLUTION in the making!

This will, if it is successful, spur an ongoing cultural and social reconfiguration of every institution in society — a total transformation of civil, political, ecclesiastical and family life as we know it — the likes of which none of us has ever seen before.

Are you ready for a restoration of liberty, constitutional government, free enterprise/free-market (“Austrian”) economics, a “non-humanist” renaissance in literature, learning, the arts and sciences, a peaceful, well-informed rolling back of tyranny, poverty, ignorance, illiteracy and their attendant evils?

And, if all goes well, given enough time, eventually, who knows, maybe even a restoration and flourishing of a true and vibrant biblical Christendom around the world?

But, we’re getting ahead of ourselves. The breaking news of this intellectual watershed event is enough to buoy us up for the moment with substantive hope for the future of humanity.

The fact that the convergence of digital technology and academic mastery have brought about this breakthrough in the delivery of education — instantaneous, “eternal” (the Internet is forever), global, and both free and cheap to the next generation of learners — is a marvel to behold.

So, let’s behold it together.

Here, in this four-and-a-half-minute video, the curriculum’s lead developer, Dr. Gary North, gives a detailed description and overview of what the program has to offer the academic buying public in terms of its “USP” — Unique Schooling Proposition — and it is unique!

You can read the complete description and summary article on the program, published today, here.

I browsed the Ron Paul Curriculum website. There is a page where the course instructors are introduced. Wow!

Can you imagine having a super-heavyweight in the liberty community like Tom Woods teaching you history? Or a well–known and respected academic quantity like Timothy Terrell teaching you economics? Or, how about this… a steely, take-no-prisoners, Bulgarian master of Christian missions and all things theological like Bojidar Marinov teaching you math! For a rock-bottom price like this?

I can’t either.

There is also a page written by the former Congressman, Dr. Paul, entitled in no uncertain terms, “This Site is Phase 2 of My Revolution: Beyond Politics.” He makes no bones about his intentions of reclaiming education: “I believe homeschooling is the wave of the future.” http://www.ronpaulcurriculum.com/public/118.cfm (Understatement. It is a tsunami!)

Until the official launch of the program on Sept. 2, 2013, Dr. North is offering a “how-to” course to help you prepare for and maximize the benefits of the curriculum:

This is truly amazing. If you have been following the progress, success and steady inroads the digital, online (and FREE!) education juggernaut has been making within the academic world during the last few years, you know what a momentous occasion this is. We already know from the gigantic success of Khan Academy that the “self-taught” web-based video model works. And we know from the popularity of the free college lectures and courses offered by M.I.T. and Harvard that this model works. It works because it’s actually not the student teaching himself. It’s the student learning independently at his own pace from a master teacher. In this case, he is learning from a bevy of master teachers: the best of the best — specialists in their field. And he can review and rewind, fast forward and skip over material to his heart’s (and mind’s) content. He is also learning from his peers through student-led forums and discussions. This is not re-inventing the wheel or flooding the market with cheap educational “alternatives.” (Or, maybe it is!) It is iron sharpening iron. Skilled craftsmen forging and shaping steel. Gold and silver being purified and refined.

But enough with the metallic metaphors.

This development is a phenomenal one. Another nail has just been driven into the atheist-humanist, anti-Christian, anti-liberty academic cartel’s coffin. The handwriting is on the wall — or on the touchscreen. As the foundations of a monopolistic, bureaucratic, statist education system continue to crack and crumble, a freshly-laid, superior superstructure of technology-based, liberty-and-free-market-driven education and intellectual development, advancement and enhancement is taking its place. September 2nd can’t get here fast enough. Let there be a renewal of liberty and learning and a revival in the theology of Christian excellence in all things. Let the reconstruction of Western Civilization begin!

For those of us who understand what ‘Christian reconstruction’ means here, we know that this change is effectively proclaiming liberty to the academic captives, telling them “their redemption draweth nigh”–or, at least, their children’s redemption draweth nigh–thanks to the tools of technology we now possess that makes their liberation possible.

The best example of how free online education is slowly triumphing over ultra-expensive, offline quasi-education, is Khan Academy. The story of how Khan got started and how it is changing the way teaching and learning take place is very inspiring and interesting. (Khan became so successful, in fact, even Bill Gates wanted in on the action!)

I sure could have used Khan Academy back when I was struggling through Calculus in college!

Anyway, Gary’s point is that the bureaucratic, state-controlled higher-education cartel is now being hammered on so many fronts, it is only a matter of time (which postmillennialists always presume to have LOTS of!) before this combination of price competition, superior alternatives, technological advancement, content improvement and entrepreneurial innovation all conspire to eventually dismantle, disintegrate and ultimately replace the monolithic, educational dinosaur that, until now, has seemed invincible, as though it would live forever–so long as there was taxpayer-funded vegetation growing in abundance (and no asteroids). The era of bureaucratic academic behemoths freely roaming the earth is almost over.

Here come the tar pits!

This is incredibly good news if your time perspective for the future is long-term and your eschatological outlook is optimistic.

If it isn’t, . . there is a prolific, prodigious body of literature produced by a small cadre of die-hard, theological outliers known as reconstructionists that I would like to recommend to you!

But this hydra monster won’t die without a fight. The war will be fought to the death: the death of coercively-funded, state-controlled education. Academic tyrants, however, don’t give up their control that easy. Institutional glaciers and intellectual ice ages move slowly and melt even more slowly.

That’s okay. This seemingly one-sided battle is a win-lose situation. We win, they lose. You see, David is using his super-efficient, Web-based slingshot and lightning-fast digital stones. Goliath is still burdened and weighted down with his heavy hardware and outdated techniques: old Philistine technology. (That’s so eleventh-century B.C.!)

It’s a matter of parental control. And principle, Gary says:

The tools of this fight are digital. The basis of this fight is ethical: the right of parents to control the content of their children’s education. The state-funded bureaucrats know this. They have fought ever since the foundation of the modern educational system in Prussia after 1810 to insulate their class from political control, while collecting tax money. This is the basis of the doctrine of academic freedom. It means freedom from interference by taxpayers and politicians.

He’s right about this: “We are living in the era that will go into the textbooks.”

The Mayans and the New Agers got it partially right. We are seeing the end of an “old world” and the dawning of a “new age”.